Sunday, March 11, 2007

Benitez Debuts

The Giants' bullpen got a nice shot in the arm on Sunday as ArmondoBenitez made his first appearance of the spring. Benitez has been on the chopping block all winter, and really has been ever since he put on a Giants' uniform. In his first inning back on the mound since late August, Benitez struck out one and allowed one hit before retiring the side and looked good in the process. This is big news for what has been a pretty disappointing spring thus far for the Giants' bullpen. The only two Giant relievers who are projected to make the opening day roster that currently have an era below 6 are Vinny Chulk and Brian Wilson. As much as Giants' fans despise of him and want him gone, Benitez holds the ticket to this bullpens success. The offense has been heating up as of late, and the starting pitchers, besides Matt Cain, have gotten in at least one decent outing. The area that has lacked so far this spring which also has been the same case for the last 3 years is the bullpen. This isn't at all a surprise to me. I questioned Sabeans' neglecting of bullpen all winter long. He didn't add a single arm from outside the organization to help this same group of relievers from last season. For this reason, Benitez has to be the difference. I know he hasn't been the best teammate in the world, and has gotten under the skin of some fans, but if this guy is in Florida come April, the closers job will be left to Brian Wilson and his career 5.40 era. Giants' fans may be wishing for a healthy Tyler Walker before long. If Benitez continues to stay healthy and throw scoreless innings, he is worth a lot more to the Giants' than Sergio Mitre or whatever other mediocre arm the Marlins will give up.

2 Comments:

I appreciate your rational, non venomous assessemnt. It happens to be wholly accurate. I was hoping Sabean would get one good RP, to replace Stanton. My favorite was Riske. Since they didn't bring anyone in, we have to assume the organization - SAbean, Tidrow, Righetti, Bochy, et al really felt that out of the 12-14 candidates they would be able to find 6 or 7 who could have ERAs in the 4.00 - 4.25 range.